


now you hang from my lips (like the Gardens of Babylon)

by posiepark24



Series: Pen Park have it bad to Josie Saltzman [1]
Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, Glossed over, Henelope brotp, I'm not good at tagging, Other, Pining, Pizzie brotp, Posie Endgame, but give it a shot, can you see?, english is not my mother tongue so excused the grammatical mistakes, henelope best rivals amirite peeps, it was my sleep-deprived fuelled musing that fire this up so excused the mess, legacies suck so i tend to write, more so penelope and caroline adventuring it on europe, sort of I mean it's there, this however is the first time i'm sharing, this is a one shot due to the letter getting to Hope instead of Lizzie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:02:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29257905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/posiepark24/pseuds/posiepark24
Summary: Penelope Park paled. How the fuck is she gonna send the letter to Lizzie. Yes. They've been slightly tolerating each other but Penelope knew she doesn't have as deep of a connection to the blonde siphoner, make it magical or emotional.(The one where Penelope was the one who sent Caroline's letter by means of a messaging spell and how it happened that Hope received it.)
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson & Penelope Park, Penelope Park & Lizzie Saltzman, Penelope Park/Josie Saltzman
Series: Pen Park have it bad to Josie Saltzman [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2148561
Comments: 8
Kudos: 42





	now you hang from my lips (like the Gardens of Babylon)

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot was crafted out of my own universe where the legacies story isn't shit. I also have been writing a lot about the school dynamics and a Penelope-centric Europe adventure with Caroline but I don't think I'll publish it yet. I wanted it to be finished before I did that because I'm bad at finishing anything because I'll feel pressured, however, I hope y'all enjoy and like this because I thoroughly had fun writing this, and let me know what you think.

It has been almost morning, Caroline is knee-deep in a sink trap somewhere in a cave in Malaga. She knew if she moved more the faster she'll end up submerged in it. She stubbornly thinks of ways to escape it, normal quicksand doesn't kill but enchanted quicksand. She knew she's in for a painful eternity of life and death if she doesn't stay on her head. 

"Care!!!"

A panic-stricken girl called out for her, she saw a soft glow of light levitating, and a silhouette appearing near the cavernous walls.

"Here!" She answered lamely, the amount of time she got saved by the teen can only be counted on hand but this, this would be the most absurd one yet. 

Who falls in quicksand while scouting a possible location of a relic they've been chasing for the months-long end? Too tired vampire thinking a quick vamp speeding around will be an easy way to check and bolt. Damn. Penelope is right. Witches are far more superior than vampire, in intellect or survivability. Who thought that thinking that her speed and the law of physics will work well, turns out, enchanted quicksand trumps her genius. And now, an eighteen-year-old girl is almost mocking her with that smug grin on her face once she saw her predicament. 

"I told you this whole space is enchanted. When will you listen to me that most witches set trap all-around their lairs? Even if this was a thousand years old cave." 

"Yea-yea! Can you pull me out?"

" I could..." in a quick spell Penelope have pulled her out. She never thought a girl with an affinity for air will be such a huge help in this situation. But it turns out, quicksand with someone who favored air and water can quickly pull her out.

"How are you so good between those two elements?"

"My primary is air, water easily comes in second. It’s my rational and emotional mind being too attuned to each other.” the teen has grabbed her hand to transport them back to the cold early morning of the arid land. She'll never get used to that, the feeling of your body vanishing and appearing. She could feel her atoms splitting in the speed of light but she never brought it up to the witch seeing that maybe it's her vampirism reacting to it because Penelope never looked so content performing that spell "have you seen anything?"

"You're the one who did a magical sweep..." 

She went in and when she bolted out using her vamp speed she ended up trapped, another insult to her bruised ego was she doesn't see any artifacts that might have helped them, instead she had seen some early writings around the wall that her phone captured. 

"I would've pulled myself off there but seeing I have my phone out containing some wall writings..." coughing out an excuse.

"Yeah, sometimes trust the witch. No magical artifacts sitting or under here. I've performed all sweeping spells I knew and it comes nada. There's not even a cloaking spell around the area. It's an abandoned lair" Penelope got her phone out of her hand to check on the pictures. "Uhm... Care. You have a text from Jo-Jo."

Caroline smile widely, often enough Penelope never gets shy around her. The first time they saw each other in Moscow, the witch was ever smug and confident, as if the world bows down to her feet and it might have been right because Penelope Park belongs to a world of power and prestige. (She might also add that the meeting was a bit of a mess and the following weeks were full of almost death.) The only times Penelope deflates is when asked about her daughter. Josie. It's like whenever her daughter is brought up, Penelope has this look of shyness and fondness, not to add that the girl’s pulse gets a little faster. The teen really got it bad and don't start her with Josie. Her daughter so far in the in-denial rabbit-hole it's painful to watch but she prefers not to interfere, staying out of her daughter's love life. It's their life, they should figure it out. 

Caroline Forbes-Salvatore is known for being a meddling and opinionated girl growing up but as she aged. She learned to observed and accept that sometimes it's better to watch things unfold in front of her. Just like how she watched her daughter pined for Penelope Park in a guise of annoyance for almost a year, Lizzie pulling her to the side and telling her she thinks her twin is bewitched by the said witch and asking her to interrogate Josie. She did, slightly. She smiles fondly over the memory long past, the summer night on Leuven where she sat with her daughters almost three years ago.

Just weeks ago she spent her time with Josie while Penelope opted to go back to the States. Putting an ocean between them again when she heard Josie is coming. Excusing that her coven responsibilities and her being needed in Ravenwood for some first Equinox of the year ritual her coven does. 

She didn't question the teen anymore. It's obvious as day that Penelope has been missing her daughter, the staring unto spaces while holding a pocket watch whenever they are in the middle of some library or old university. Or how before they were sneaking in some museum to look for some artifacts, the raven-haired witch would be busy flipping the cover throughout the entire ride and magically putting it back to some dimension wherein it won't be damaged. 

She grabs her phone back to read her daughter's message. Her heart constricts over the message. 

"Is everything okay, Care?" There's a deep concern painted on Penelope's features. She knew Penelope is beyond pissed. It had been months since they learned that Josie have been consumed by dark magic and Alaric didn't even bother to think of telling her and the whole we're fine brigade got stale real quick, costing her to have trust issues with the man. Which led to threatening Jeremy and Damon to bring her accurate news. 

Penelope's coping after it was getting more involved with her school coven group once again to reach chatter and setting her wolf cousin straight for some answers even if half the time their phone signals is wacky for being stuck in the middle of nowhere. News about the school is doing good, but Vardemus being replaced by some mud child really rattled her. It was a lot and she wanted to run back to Mystic Falls as soon as she heard the news, maybe she should’ve but Alaric has been confident that he has the situation under control, and if wasn't the situation on her hand too severe she would have taken a break yet they are looking for a needle in a haystack, and the possible solution for the merge is still a theoretical and unless they had the artifacts they needed then everything remained a pipe dream. 

"It's Lizzie..."

"She okay?"

"She's having huge self-doubt over some play. Do you still have a pen and some card?" Penelope sighed. 

Since last year, Penelope and Lizzie have worked on their differences, learning to bridge the gap. Lizzie has figured out that the girl helping her mom was Penelope in the few hours that the two met. It might have been the air of superiority that gave Penelope away but the witch wouldn't accept that reasoning because Penelope thinks she's the best when she really is but the teen has a short-fused when it comes to her daughter’s safety, (though it might have been the pain the girl was under when they met causes for Penelope to lose her cool) especially the brunette one. 

It was a chaotic day and Lizzie Saltzman almost killed the witch but in the end, they spent almost the whole of July and August together. Lizzie embracing her magic while Penelope or Bonnie tried to teach her control. It was beautiful to watch, her daughter starts accepting her magic back in confidence. After the whole assessment that Lizzie is bipolar, Caroline's daughter starts to stray away from her magic.  Terrified that it will add more to the list of problems if she continued to hone it.

However, the snarkiness between them comes on waves but not the kind of Lizzie losing it on Penelope. Lizzie starts to accept the fact that despite all the heartaches her twin and Penelope cause on each other. Their love for each other remains constant. This adds to Lizzie's frustrations after trying to convince Penelope to get back on her sister good grace the entire summer, even going to the length of telling the shorter girl that she'll help but Penelope, ever stubborn and thinking that staying away from Josie is better because of her self-induced punishment for the whole dumping that happened that midnight of her birthday. Stupid really, who breaks up to the love of their life through a phone call while high up on alcohol as you celebrate your 17th birthday somewhere in New York. Cut the shit, she wasn't celebrating. She's whining and crying to her sisters and brother about the predicament she's in for the first time in ages, she’s even certain Thea have got a video of her crying her heart’s out somewhere in her phone as a form of blackmail. Stupid coven and her responsibilities (she had a system, giving the pens and keeping a spy book as a means to an end. A way to make sure that the school's balance is up to speed, so it came with a surprise that she stumbles one night on the Merge causing her a month of spiraling down until she snaps, her alcohol addled brain calling Josette Saltzman in the middle of the night and telling her it's over when it's far from over because Penelope Park gave her heart to the girl and she never thought of getting it back). She wanted to take it back when she woke up from a massive hangover in a very familiar room. She's in her room on the six-storey brownstone that her family owns for decades in New York whilst her oldest sister is drape on her side, snoring loudly.

Penelope stops her thoughts from wandering and pull something out of thin air. "Here." passing the pen and letter card so Caroline can write down whatever it is she wanted to say to the blonde siphoner. 

She watched dazedly as Caroline walked over the hood of the black 4x4 jeep.

Penelope's mind is racing. It has been weeks since she learned everything that transpired around Salvatore Boarding School. Honestly, she wanted to kill Alaric and even Hope and Jed. They were a total mess for the past months and she wanted to run back to Mystic Falls, to personally check. If it wasn’t for her going back to Ravenwood and talking to Jas, she wouldn’t even know about Josie getting shot. 

She knew Jas loyalty would always fall on the order but she didn't expect that they wouldn't even update her over the important things that happened on the witches inside Salvatore, partake that her whole hours were obsessing over her dilemma and the search for the merge solution, she thought everything was fine, Malivore’s connection to this realm was cut off but to her dismay, it wasn’t. She really regrets totally blowing off tons of coven meetings but she was expecting them to ring her at least. All she knew was the school needed a new headmaster and her aunt relayed to her mother to recommend Vardamus from Whitdam. 

It even came to her mind that she couldn't even blame Hope, her leaving caused more rift between them but she was expecting her best friend to cave and reach out after the biggest fallout due to bird boy. She wasn't even sure if her warping spell work to pull Hope out until Caroline woke up one early morning remembering Hope Mikaelson, and Caroline vaguely discussing how weird Josie one day on her phonecall. 

Her cousin, however, took everything in his own hand. God. Jedidiah will literally have it once they saw each other in Richmond. 

MG, on the other hand, she understood. She never really gave the vampire a way to contact her, however, she expected that at least Kaleb will use the enchanted mirror she gave the vampire upon winning the honor council. MG has been a friend but he's always been Josie's friend. They became acquainted because of Josie and thus not really expecting much from the nerdy fangs. 

Her thoughts got distracted when Caroline gave her the sealed envelope. She hasn't noticed that she skirt on the bumper side of the car. Waiting on Caroline's.

"Do you think you still have enough power to send this to Lizzie?" 

Penelope Park paled. How the fuck is she gonna send the letter to Lizzie. Yes. They've been slightly tolerating each other but Penelope knew she doesn't have as deep of a connection to the blonde siphoner, make it magical or emotional. God knows Bonnie Bennett was the one who almost all did the _helping Lizzie Saltzman's to control her power over the summer project of hers_ , she just wrote down the curriculum. Their magical connection is so far down the drain because she couldn't let the girl channel her, unlike the times' she shared her power with Hope or Josie years ago.

"Shit." 

"What?"

"It only works on the people I'm magically connected with, or had a constant established connection with, and must be supernatural. Unless we have an emotional connection or I have a thing of theirs, pretty sure Lizzie and I don't have. I couldn't feel her magic."

"Penelope... how about Josie? Josie will-"

"Did you forget about how Josie's magical signature is gone because she transferred her power on a coin?" Penelope grimaced until an idea came on her. "Unless I sent it to Hope. Is it alright to send it to Hope?"

Hope Mikaelson, her best friend and her best rival. They've been friends since ninth grade. God knows they did enough spell practical and foolish trolling on each other for almost two years until she broke up with Josie. 

"You sure this won't fall to some other witches, the content of this is for Lizzie's eyes only. Promise me it will reach Hope or Lizzie. I would've called Bonnie to help but she's busy in India looking for the artifact."

"No yeah... are you really doubting my ability. After all this time, headmistress Forbes-Salvatore?" She kid, Caroline rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms.

"You've been going off for almost twenty-four hours on using magic. We both know you're exhausted. Are you sure you can spare more magic?" Caroline Forbes-Salvatore doesn't really scare Penelope unless she looked like a mother bear. Just like now, there's a maternal intensity radiating off Caroline that just scares her. It reminds her of her mother and her mother bless her five feet height scares the shit out of her at all times. She gulped. 

It's been exhausting hours. She knew she really did spend most of her power. She couldn't use her amplifying pendant since last year that it sat on her study garnering cobwebs since she set foot on Europe for her stupid coven ritual. Something about her power going volatile if she put it on her neck while her body is swirling with her mother's and aunt's protective sigils. 

"I'm fine. You know I can channel my siblings whenever I want.” _Perks of being the highest witch protégé on the Divine Twilight._ Penelope shut her eyes at the thought as she walked over the passenger door of the four-wheel drive. 

"Well, rest first, for safety sake. You sleep and regain your strength while I drive, no using of magic, I swear Penelope. Once we're back at the lodge. You send it." 

“Yeah, yeah… _mom_ , whatever…”

It was a three hours nap. Penelope has developed a new way of living. For years she suffered from lack of sleep. She's an insomniac but ever since she did the Rite of Passage almost a year ago in Romania. Her body has been so exhausted and she can easily find sleep anywhere, like a moving bumpy car which would’ve been impossible. Sleep has been a sweet escape knowing how much pain she's under whenever she uses magic at the moment. 

"Hey, we're here." 

Caroline lightly nudges her shoulder. 

The sun has been way up. It must have been eight in the morning. Andalusian heat is cool but different in the early months as there's a certain mixture of heat and coldness in the air.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and slipped out of the reclined seat. Following Caroline's inside the cabin that was lease under her name. A precaution to stay away from vampires and multiple barriers protecting the whole lodge from supernatural trespassers, a way to deterred anyone away.

"I'll cook your favorite."

"Yeah, going to my room to send your letter."

They went on a separate way, Caroline to the left where the kitchen is located while she ventured to the right where her room is. 

She'd have three trusty messaging spells. One was the quiet one she'd been using to Josie since she grew curious about the pouty brunette. It was a combination of strong emotional connection and air elemental messaging spell where you create a telegraphic connection between yourself and a receiver, it works two ways. Something she learned when she was a kid in her coven. Another however was an old one, from her grandfather's coven. Ancient Sanskrit and a very effective spell, all she needed is a magical and emotional connection to whoever is receiving it. Hope's, being one of her ingredients and it needed air and fire. Good thing the fire pit just outside her window will be useful. 

Verbalizing a fire spell to light the pit, followed by the messaging incantation _-jari risala nariin-_ the fire roared as the sealed letter float as if being swayed by air (which it was). Channeling her magical connection and memories with Hope. 

Memories of all the time they played together in her room, annoying Hope while the auburn-haired girl broodingly paints, Hope dumping her laundry on hers because it was her fault that the tribrid fell on the mud in the capture the flag game on Field Day when they were a freshman that May. Them doing spells together as Hope being her acolyte on OBR. Kicking Jed's butt on the gym while Hope channels her for additional juice. 

A final roar of the fire and the letter is gone on the instant. She knew it will reach Hope. It had to be.

As the letter is delivered. Penelope settled on her back of her bed. Wishing she wasn't missing out so much but knew this is the only way. The creatures coming out of Malivore is dangerous, especially if the golem sent out some gods and goddesses it consumed, no amount of hold Malivore has to the mental acuity of those gods are enough once let out, even instruction to chase the bird boy wouldn't stick enough. 

She knew at least half of the gods and goddesses will have a vendetta on her family if they weren't sent to the right realm and instead fell on Malivore's grasp. The best she could do is stay far away. It would just be far more dangerous, she knew it was just a matter of time. A skill of foresight is required for it and if it wasn't for her family and her keen expertise on crisis management, they would've been done in smithereens. 

All the branches of witch communities associated with OBR have been lending a hand. All augurs and seers trying to foresee a movement in the future that might indicate a possible end and her being ready when that day comes.

_ Too much power comes great responsibility. _

However, behind the back of her mind, a thought runs clearly, fuck the Park and her family legacy. She just wants Josie Saltzman yet she couldn't even go back without endangering her. 

So for now, she'll settle for the long game she'd been playing. Dealing with one crisis at a time. Another reminder that one of her impressive traits is being patient and god knows she'll have the patience the whole world has to offer if it comes to the older Saltzman's duo. 

**Author's Note:**

> I've been writing a Josie Saltzman POV of the entire posie relationship. It's a mess at the moment, especially the timeline but it's almost eighty thousand words. Though I think I'll end up publishing my henelope brotp one-shot one of these days tho. BECAUSE I LOVE THEM AND I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT THEY AREN'T FRIENDS when they are possibly classmates. I lived off henelope dynamic since 106 and I don't think I ever recovered. Just the thought that they bond over the twins tells me an underlying brotp happening behind the scenes. Also hit me up on twitter if you wanna talk, @/posiepark24


End file.
